Hiraya Kogen Ski Area is a ski area in Nagano, Japan, on slopes between roughly 960 and 1,015 m. Its mapped area is about 0.5 km across, with 5 marked runs and 2 lifts (about 1.4 km of piste in all).
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 59 cm of snowfall a season, 390th of the 397 ski areas we measure in Japan. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2021/22 (97 cm), brought more than 4 times as much as the leanest, 2015/16 (20 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 18 cm. Snowfall days average −1.7 °C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 393rd of 397 in Japan.
Below are links to 2 official live cameras.
Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear here once snow starts to fall. Until then, the long-run record comes first.
Elevation range is estimated by sampling points across the ski area.
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,069 ski areas by one identical method. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
The tick marks the median across every Japanese ski area we measure. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.
The quality score deliberately excludes how much snow falls — it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind. Snowing a lot and snowing well are different things.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km straight line. Measured the same way, so the ranks compare directly. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jibusaka Ski Area | 6.9 km | 88 cm | 2500 |
| Chausuyama Kogen Ski Area | 10 km | 63 cm | 2725 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 72% of January’s snowfall. That is a gentler fall than the median for ski areas in Japan (52%). For skiing, though, the amount matters more than the share: March brings 13 cm, less than the median of 46 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 59 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015/16 with 20 cm; the biggest was 2021/22 with 97 cm (4.8 times as much). For 63% of the 397 ski areas in Japan, the leanest winter was the same 2015/16: bad winters tend to hit a whole region at once.
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Runs and lifts
Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Run map
The shape of the mountain
Which way the slopes face
89% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.
By difficulty
Lift types
- Chairlift2
See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗
Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.
Live Cameras
This ski area does not put a camera on its own slopes. What follows are nearby cameras, not the pistes themselves.
Road conditions decide whether you can get there at all. Check before you leave.
Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.
Some cameras here are provided by Windy.com. Footage plays in Windy’s own player; we do not store it. Windy.com
Southern Nagano webcams & snow report — all 3 ski areas →
Worth seeing nearby
Places within 20 km of this ski area, for a day off the slopes or an evening. Chosen from those most read about on Wikipedia, favouring places with an English Wikipedia article, and listed nearest first.
| Place | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Chausuyama茶臼山 (愛知県・長野県) | Mountain | 9.1 km |
| Mount Ena恵那山 | Mountain | 15.5 km |
| Iwamura Castle岩村城 | Historic site | 16.9 km |
| Hirugami Onsen昼神温泉 | Hot spring town | 18.6 km |
| Tenryū-Okumikawa Quasi-National Park天竜奥三河国定公園 | Nature | 19.1 km |
| Tamoto Station田本駅 | Landmark | 19.9 km |
Based on the Japanese Wikipedia lists of sights in each prefecture, as compiled in travel-log-data (CC BY-SA 4.0). English names from Wikidata (CC0). The content of this section is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Map
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
Official piste map ↗Places to stay nearby
2 properties on Rakuten Travel lie within 3 km of this ski area, listed cheapest first.
| Property | From | Rating | Distance | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ファームイン根羽 ＾ | ¥4,250 | — | 0.4 km | 阿木駅から車で約５０分 |
| 山村体験宿泊施設 けいしょう館 せせらぎコテージ | — | — | 2.2 km | 中央自動車道飯田山本ＩＣよりお車にて３０分 |
Contains advertising · Property data by Rakuten Travel (Supported by Rakuten Developers)
Stay nearby
13 places within 12 km of the slopes. Most of them do not take online bookings — open the map for contact details.
Accommodation data: OpenStreetMap
More places to look
Guides covering Nagano
- A Historic El Niño Is Forecast. Here Is What the Last Big One Did to Japan's Snow. NOAA gives a very strong El Niño better than a 90% chance this winter. We measured every Japanese ski area across the last 12 winters: El Niño winters ran 88% of normal, and the strongest of the twelve left Japan at 63%. But Hakuba held 92% of its average that winter while Niseko fell to 57%.
- Which Famous Ski Resorts Actually Get the Most Snow? 24 Names, Measured Niseko is 526th in the world for snowfall. Zermatt is 554th, Jackson Hole 924th, Aspen 1,201st. Measured identically across 3,069 ski areas, the names everyone books and the places it actually snows turn out to be two different lists.
- How Japan's Early-Bird Lift Tickets Work: At Hakuba Happo-One, Eight of the Nine Need a Japanese ID Card Hakuba Happo-One opened early-bird sales at 10:00 on 1 October. A day costs ¥6,400 against ¥9,800 at the window, 35% off. But every ticket on the list except one needs a My Number Card and a Japanese phone app. A visitor from abroad can buy exactly one of them, at 15% off.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52